Leah looked out the window with a somewhat anxious heart.

‘It’s alright. I’ve been watching for several days, but I haven’t seen any separate manifestation of black magic.’

The calm hand on her chest soothed her fearful heart.

For the past few days, Leah had been observing closely by Yves’ side, but Yves hadn’t used any unusual powers.

The spots beginning to appear near her chest were still faint, on the level of light bruises.

As long as she doesn’t get seriously hurt, that power won’t be discovered.

‘It’ll be fine since Grita went with her.’

Leah turned her gaze away from the window.

And where that gaze landed was on a thick scripture placed on the small table.

The most detailed record of black magic that the public could access – Desiderata.

It was a story about her sins that she had turned a blind eye to, intoxicated with happiness after giving birth to Yves.

She had read it hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.

There was nothing she hadn’t read, including all the annotations, translations, and interpretations attached to the scripture.

But in the end, it was back to square one.

‘Even if I read it now, nothing will change, but…’

So that scripture was the straw that she, who was being pushed down by fate, was grasping at.

Perhaps there was something she had missed.

Maybe there were hidden secrets within it.

Thinking that by holding onto those suspicions and questions, she might be able to endure a little longer.

She knew.

That it was a meaningless straw that would soon be uprooted.

Yet the reason she aimlessly read Desiderata was because of Yves.

Wanting to somehow save the child.

However, she couldn’t read the ending of Desiderata anymore.

The part where the demon Mephistopheles is sealed in hell as punishment.

When she thought it was her own end, it was certainly frightening but she could read it. But when she thought this would be her child’s end, she couldn’t bring herself to read the sentences at all.

There was a legend that a lost latter portion of this scripture existed, but even if that latter portion was found, she felt she wouldn’t be able to read further.

After all, it would likely describe how much Mephistopheles suffered after receiving his punishment.

Leah bit her lip, turning it inward.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door to the room she was in.

‘Who could it be?’

As she turned towards the door, an envelope slid through the crack under the closed door.

The sound of footsteps moving away could be heard outside the door.

Leah picked up the white envelope placed in front of the door.

The only ones who knew she was in this room were Eclas and a few people who followed him.

There was no reason for them to especially slip a letter under and leave…

The moment she examined the picked up envelope, she discovered the letters written on one corner of it.

— Riana Serpens

The handwriting was awkward and hard to recognize.

And a name that should not be spoken.

Leah urgently opened the door to check the hallway.

But only the empty, long corridor silently greeted her.

‘Who on earth…?’

Leah closed the door and carefully opened the envelope.

Inside was a single sheet of old paper.

— If you want to meet Yves, come find me. Alone. By sunset. The Giant’s Head.

Her heart sank at the letters spelling Yves.

And where her eyes stopped was at the end of the long sentence.

‘…crescent moon?’

A crescent moon clearly drawn in black ink could be seen.

The paper trembled at her fingertips.

There was no reason to especially draw a moon at the end. Unless they knew the symbol of black magic.

‘No one should know this secret…!’

Moreover, if they also knew Yves’ secret, then Yves was…

Her heart raced.

The sunset was already spreading outside the window.

The sky gradually turning red seemed to throw a warning at her.

Thoughts for Yves’ sake rapidly lined up in her head.

She couldn’t ask Eclas for help. He knew nothing about black magic.

Leah took the dagger Eclas had given her for self-defense just in case.

Even if this was a trap, there was no other way.

‘I have to protect her with my own strength.’

An undying body.

For the first time, the curse felt like courage.

The Giant’s Head was a cliff on the west side of Sisleon Island.

Like the head of a fallen giant towards the vast sea, it was a cliff jutting out.

It was a place with few signs of people, as it was remote, high in elevation, and boats couldn’t even dock there.

Leah ran up the tall hill path.

After secretly leaving the Golden Castle, she ran to the Giant’s Head without stopping once.

As if urging her on, the sky turned a deeper scarlet.

The muscles in her legs climbing the hill path felt heavy and sore.

Her breath caught in her throat and her lungs felt like they would tear.

In the distance, the red sky unfolded at the end of the cliff.

When she reached the end of the Giant’s Head mentioned in the note, she saw a large ship floating on the crimson sea.

Beyond the distant sea, the red sun hung over the horizon.

“Yves…!”

Leah looked around dejectedly, clutching the sweat-soaked note.

Was she too late?

Or was this someone’s prank? A trap?

Thoughts swirled chaotically in her breathless state.

At that moment, from below the cliff, she heard the voice she had desperately hoped for.

“Mother!”

Turning around, Yves was running towards her.

Leah felt tears well up in an instant.

She ran to Yves and embraced the child in her arms.

“Yves! Where have you been! Do you know how worried Mother was!”

Despite having missed her so much, bitter words spilled out as soon as she felt relieved.

“Yves missed Mother too…”

As the small face sobbed, her heart melted hotly.

Leah gently caressed Yves’ cheek with her sweat-soaked hand.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“No. The bad guy mister protected me!”

“Bad guy mister?”

If it was the bad guy mister, the day Yves left the room…

At that moment, a long dark shadow draped over the two of them.

With an eerie premonition, Leah turned around while protecting Yves.

A large figure in a robe.

As he slowly took off his robe, the red sunset washed over his face.

Her heart, holding Yves, began to beat with great thuds again.

“…It’s been a while, Louise.”

A face she could never forget even if she lived forever.

Jet black hair, violet eyes shining within gently lowered eyelids.

“Sched…?”

Sched gazed at the eyes looking up at him with fear while holding Yves.

Yes, those eyes.

The eyes he had so desperately searched for.

Her cheeks, with a light sheen of sweat, looked healthier than before with soft flesh.

Holding a child that resembled him, she was here, alive.

“Looks like you’ve been doing well.”

A dry smile spread across Sched’s lips as he looked at her.

“Even had a baby while I wasn’t looking.”

As the violet eyes turned towards the child, strength entered the slender fingertips holding Yves.

She had heard the news that he stepped down from the position of governor of Blancas and returned.

Since he returned after several years, she thought he would naturally be in Lester territory or Ideana.

With the numerous achievements he made after she left, she believed he would be enjoying a life of splendor second to none, but…

“How are you here…?”

She couldn’t understand.

This place was Sisleon.

It was an island that required taking a boat from the continent, and it wasn’t the territory of the Duke of Lester.

Moreover, his shabby appearance was no different from any other wanderer.

At her absentminded question, a sneer erupted from Sched’s lips.

“How?”

The answer to that question was too long.

What decision he made after she disappeared.

From the snowy mountains of Furnig to the wilderness of Blancas, where he searched, who he met, how many nights he stayed up.

Why he participated in the war.

Why he recklessly infiltrated enemy lines at the risk of danger.

Why he took it upon himself to be the governor of Blancas for 2 years.

When he accepted that he was being deceived by Eclas Bitel and came all the way here.

There wasn’t enough time to explain the damned circumstances.

“You tell me, Louise.”

His black boots took a step closer with a thud.

The shadow cast over Louise and Yves deepened by that much.

“How you’ve been doing. When you made such a happy little family.”

Sched’s hand, still sweeping down the fake chocolate-colored hair, stopped at her pale cheek.

“Were you happy with that bastard?”

While I was searching the empire like a madman?

With the sound of teeth grinding, his long fingers grabbed her chin and lifted it up.

In his eyes that met hers were emotions difficult to understand, all mixed together.

Louise also felt sickening emotions rising in confusion.

At her speechless lips, the cold gaze turned to Yves nestled in her arms.

Reflexively, Louise held Yves even tighter.

“…What did you do to the child?”

When she asked in a barbed voice, a hollow laughter burst from his lips.

The woman he met after several years, instead of answering his questions, was asking as if he had done something he shouldn’t have.

“Nothing.”

The smile that had flashed across his lips hardened, pale and stiff like wax dripped on ice.

“But who knows if you’re being uncooperative.”

Killing that bastard’s child was nothing.

An arid, emotionless voice flowed from him, dyed red by the sunset.

“Besides, that kid.”

As he lowered his waist, whispering softly, he drew close enough for his breath to touch.

Louise caught her breath for a moment.

“Knows how to use black magic, doesn’t she? Taking after you.”

Meeting the cold eyes, agitation rose in Louise’s pupils.

An uncontrollable anxiety grew from deep within.

He held the secret she feared most in his hands.

“How on earth…”

As the hand holding Yves trembled, a loose composure spread across his lips where anger had been reflected.

“That’s what I want to ask. How do you and this child have the power of heresy?”